Kylee DeBock / DeBock Harvesting
Summer is officially over.
The kids start school tomorrow (August 19th).
But, let’s back up so I can tell you about our Montana harvest.
My last post had us just getting to Hardin, Montana but the wheat wasn’t quite ready yet. We had such a busy summer that the break was much appreciated!
The boys enjoyed the pool at the KOA and we made a couple of ice cream trips to the Main Street of Hardin to The Farmer’s Daughter General Store. We also did our school supply and clothes shopping.
Dillon’s Uncle John lives just a few hours from Hardin so he drove in for a visit. We enjoyed lunch at the local diner and then back to The Farmer’s Daughter for an ice cream.
The down time was nice, but on July 19th, it was time to get back to work.
For the most part, the Bench went pretty smoothly except for one day. On July 24th, we had a heck of a day. The bubble auger on Colston’s combine broke (this is the auger inside the bin where the grain comes out). We did not have the parts to fix it. However, my husband is very handy and figured out a way to weld the broken piece so that it would function until we got the new part.
That all took about two hours out in the heat. I am not kidding, as soon as Colston’s combine was back in the wheat cutting a short five minutes later, Riggin’s combine blew an oil seal. That was a very easy fix….or so we thought!
The combine cut for about an hour and the oil seal blew again. Again, an easy fix.
This happened three times throughout the day. The seal finally held and we haven’t had any problems with it since that day. I guess we just had some bad seals!
At the very end of the day, when I show up with dinner, Colston’s combine had blown a fan belt! And, of course, all of this had to happen on a record-breaking 106 degree day! After all of the hours in the heat fixing everything, after dinner we called it an early night.
We cut up on the Bench for a week. The weather was great and it was a lot of early mornings and late nights.
On August 27th, we stopped cutting around 9:00 PM and headed into town to a concert that was being held after the PRCA rodeo. The band playing was Exit 53. The lead singer is Landa, our farmer’s youngest daughter! It was so nice to have a fun evening out with our friends.
Once we finished the Bench, we moved down into the valley and cut irrigated wheat and barley for four days.
Our crops in North Dakota were not ready yet so we took a few extra days in Montana to do some maintenance on equipment. The boys replaced all of the guards and sickles on both headers, changed oil in both combines and in the tractor, and gave everything a good cleaning before loading up.
We were also able to have dinner with Dillon’s brother, Laramie, and his daughter, Daisy. Unfortunately, Laramie’s wife was unable to attend due to a work seminar. It was a great evening as we sat out on the porch and watched Daisy play while we all visited. We then walked down to the local pizza place for dinner and ended the evening with a walk by the stream and watching the Olympics.
On August 1st, we left Hardin and headed HOME! The trip was uneventful which is always a plus. However, the Mack did break down but, thankfully, it was in the farmer’s yard.
We ordered the parts but they would not be in until the next day. This gave me a full day to get the camper unloaded and cleaned. I also spent several hours weeding my flower beds and enjoying just being home.
The Mack breakdown ended up being a plus because when I called to tell my farmer we wouldn’t be coming back right away, they invited us to go out on the lake with them on Sunday. Dillon figured we would have the Mack fixed by then so we all loaded up and headed back to Montana on Saturday the 3rd.
We spent the night with our farmer and then got up the next morning and headed to the Big Horn Lake. It was the PERFECT ending for my boy’s summer! They had worked SO HARD, with only about four days off all summer. They needed to do a summer activity and just have some fun.
And FUN they had! They both rode the tube and paddle boards and Colston even waterskied! He tried a few years ago but never could get up. This year, however, he popped right out of the water and skied several miles!
The next day, we took the second load to North Dakota and started cutting barley in Tioga.
On August 13th, we moved our equipment to Powers Lake to cut lentils. We cut for two days and then the weather quit cooperating.
However, since the weather was not nice enough for cutting, it allowed us the opportunity to go to Colston’s football scrimmage in Williston. There were four teams and we scrimmaged each team for about thirty minutes. I love watching my boys play so I was glad that we were able to go!
Well, that brings us to August 18th, the night before school starts!
God Bless,
Kylee DeBock
Humble yourselves, then, under God’s mighty hand, so that he will lift you up in his own good time. 1 Peter 5:6
